Tag Archives: child abuse

State news

It ain’t child abuse

Greg Abbott never struck me in the years I covered him while working in daily journalism as a man with a mean streak; that was before he became Texas governor and now his meanness is on display.

Abbott wants to prosecute parents of transgender children for child abuse. Why? Because they want their children to undergo what is called “gender-affirming care.” He has the endorsement of the state’s indicted attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is another piece of … work.

What is gender-affirming care? The Texas Tribune reported:

Areana Quiñones, executive director for the Texas nonprofit organization Doctors For Change, defined gender-affirming care as judgment-free, individualized care oriented toward understanding and appreciating a person’s gender. Providers often work with counselors and family members to ensure they have everything they need to navigate the health care system.

Under the gender-affirming model of care, more time is spent allowing kids to socially transition instead of focusing on medical treatment. A social transition consists of the steps a child takes to affirm their identity. An example could include allowing a child assigned male at birth to grow their hair or use a different name and wear clothing that better fits their identity.

Is that the stuff of child abuse? I think not.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/04/gender-affirming-care-transgender-texas/

What’s happening is that Gov. Abbott, who just breezed to the Republican nomination for a third term as governor after being challenged from the right wing of his party, is trying to assuage concerns among the nut jobs in his party that he isn’t conservative enough. Yeah … he is.

This ridiculous attack on children who express legitimate concerns about their sexuality suggests a level of radical conservative thought that shouldn’t have a place in setting state policy.

Child abuse is clearly defined as physical or emotional damage inflicted on children. How gender-affirming care — as stated earlier in this blog post — falls into that category simply boggles my noodle.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

This isn’t child abuse, Gov. Abbott

When I think of the term “child abuse,” I think of someone delivering physical harm to a child, or tormenting them emotionally, or hurling epithets in an effort to denigrate them.

Getting medical care for a transgender child, one who wants to change their gender identity? No. Not … even … close.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been accused by the right-wing nut jobs running against him in this year’s Republican Party primary of not being “conservative enough,” has declared his intention to label the transgender matter I just described as “child abuse.”

That is a gigantic step toward reprehensible governance by someone who has disappointed me greatly ever since he became governor in 2015. My disappointment has now become disgust.

The Texas Tribune reports:

Shelly Skeen, a senior attorney with Lambda Legal, said it’s highly unlikely that a judge would justify child abuse charges or removal of a child based solely on the use of gender-affirming therapy.

“Texas law has a very clear definition of what child abuse is, and it’s not this,” Skeen said.

… Child abuse investigations based on gender-affirming care are almost unheard of in Texas. Officials at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services say that there have been three reports last week “meeting the description in the AG opinion and Governor’s directive” but offered no other details. No investigations have been launched, officials said.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/28/texas-transgender-child-abuse/

Greg Abbott has lost his marbles if he thinks he can obtain a successful prosecution on gender-affirming care by calling it a case of “child abuse.”

We are heading down the slipperiest of slopes with this kind of nutty proclamation coming from the Texas governor’s office.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, Sports news

JoePa's wins restored at Penn State

How does one react to the news that the late Joe Paterno once again is the winningest coach in NCAA football history?

Man, this leaves me with incredibly mixed feelings.

The NCAA and Penn State University have reached a settlement that removes a sanction imposed on PSU because of the hideous conduct of one of its assistant football coaches and the assertion that Coach Paterno — at one time the living, breathing example of moral rectitude in college football — looked the other way while incidents of child abuse were occurring.

http://news.psu.edu/story/341060/2015/01/16/board-trustees/board-trustees-approves-terms-proposed-ncaa-lawsuit?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=psu%20official

The Penn State board of trustees has agreed unanimously to pay $60 million toward child abuse prevention programs and to aid children who fall victims to ghastly abuse. The sanctions are lifted, Paterno’s record gets 112 wins restored, and assistant coach Jerry Sandusky — who was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse of children — will remain in prison, where he belongs.

Paterno’s reputation has been destroyed, even with the restoration of the victories. His standing as the football coach with more wins than anyone else will include the proverbial asterisk.

This hideous scandal really wasn’t about what happened on the football field. It was about the monstrous abuse delivered to children by a sexual predator. One has nothing to do with the other.

I guess my reaction, therefore, to this outcome is to be glad that the record has been restored. It’s not so much for “JoPa,” but for the young student-athletes who participated in attaining those victories in the first place.

 

entertainment news, national news, Sports news

'Role model' definition needs some work

There once was a time when I disagreed completely with Charles Barkley’s assertion that “I am not a role model.”

The events of the past few weeks involving some high-profile professional athletes are making me put that comment in an entirely new perspective. Role models? Probably not. Ambassadors? Yes.

The pro football players who have been caught up in cases involving domestic violence and child abuse are facing criminal charges. Barkley, to the best of my recollection, never got ensnared in criminal activity while he was playing professional basketball. He said some strange things and behaved a bit boorishly at times. He could play a great game of basketball, for which he was compensated handsomely.

The activity under scrutiny these days is quite different. It involves the law and whether highly paid professional athletes have broken certain laws that prohibit the abuse of children or committing acts of violence on another human being.

As I re-watched Barkley’s video, he said something that rings so true. The real “role models” in children’s lives are their parents. “Just because I can dunk a basketball,” Barkley said, “doesn’t mean I can raise your kids.”

I cannot pretend to know what kind of childhood the men involved in these recent cases of alleged criminal activity had. One of the pro football players, Ray Rice, apologized for hitting his then-fiancée by saying he was raised by his single mother and that his behavior wasn’t the kind of thing his mom taught him to do.

I’ll accept that.

However, what about the role that these athletes play as ambassadors for the organizations that pay them these huge sums of money? Or the communities they represent when they wear the athletic uniforms that carry the names of the teams?

The role of ambassador should mean something to these guys, their employers and the governing body — in this case the National Football League — that oversees everyone’s conduct.

Uncategorized

Sponsors will get NFL's attention

Leave it to the sponsors to get through to the dim bulbs who run professional football teams, some of which are populated by criminals.

They are the entities that will get to the owners, the general managers, the sports agents and perhaps even to the athletes.

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is now suspended indefinitely while Texas courts seek to resolve the indictment charging him with child abuse in the whipping of his 4-year-old son. What made the Vikings switch so dramatically? The Radisson hotel chain pulled its sponsorship.

Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice is under indefinite suspension for knocking his then-fiancée unconscious in a gambling casino elevator. Rice would marry the woman he knocked out cold and now the NFL Players Association is appealing his suspension.

What is driving all of this? The corporate sponsors who give big money to the NFL, to its teams and who pay players big money to endorse their products.

They’re going to yank those endorsements and those sponsorships.

That’s when the owners will get the message. Indeed, many of them are getting it already.

There likely will be more cases of domestic violence reported. Perhaps it’s a function of the violent sport. Hey, it might even be a consequence of the concussions these athletes are suffering.

Whatever the cause, domestic violence — and let’s include child abuse in that broad category of grotesque misbehavior — cannot be allowed to stand.

If the owners and team officials — along with the league — cannot muster up the guts to the right thing by themselves, then the sponsors will make the call for them.

national news, Sports news

Vikings make right call in Peterson case

Adrian Peterson was supposed to play football this weekend for the Minnesota Vikings.

Now he’s out of the game.

The All-Pro running back has been indicted on child brutality charges involving injuries suffered by his 4-year-old son when dear old Dad took a tree branch to him while disciplining him.

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/vikings-place-adrian-peterson-on-exempt-list

This case has me vexed. Does it rise to the level of domestic violence acts being committed by other pro football players? No, but it’s serious and potentially tragic nonetheless.

I’m beginning to tilt more toward tough sanctions against this guy.

Think about what happened here: A 220-pound man takes a piece of wood to a 4-year-old boy and inflicts bodily injury on him. Does that constitute spanking the way most of us understand the term? Hardly.

I was spanked twice — I think — by my mother. Both times she used her hand. One incident I remember vividly occurred in the back seat of a car in which she actually “turned me over her knee” and gave me a serious walloping.

Peterson’s use of a tree branch goes beyond what I understand to be spanking.

The Vikings now have placed him on some sort of “exempt” list, which bars him from all team activities while this case is being investigated. Sponsors are pulling their endorsements from the team, costing the Vikings considerable amounts of money. Fans are protesting against the team; I suspect there might be a fan boycott if the Vikings reinstate Peterson too soon.

Yes, this is a serious matter that deserves serious attention.

The Vikings are giving it all the attention it deserves, which is a lot.

national news, political news, Sports news, State news

Peterson case getting complicated

1 Comment

I’m trying to wrap my arms around the case of Adrian Peterson.

This one is much tougher to grasp than, say, the case of Ray Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back who cold-cocked his fiancée and was suspended by the National Football League.

Peterson’s case involves his parental discipline techniques. He’s been indicted for inflicting injury to his 4-year-old son while disciplining him. The Minnesota Vikings running back — who’d been benched when the indictment alleging criminal activity came down — is going to play on Sunday.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11534340/adrian-peterson-minnesota-vikings-facing-second-child-abuse-accusation

Does the Peterson case rise to the level of the Rice case? Not in my eyes.

But now we hear about injuries inflicted by Peterson on another of his sons.

I’ve heard the comments from those who wondered whether we’ve gotten too “soft.” They bemoan the fact that their spankings by parents using switches — as Peterson did on his son — are now considered “child abuse.” I’m trying to keep an open mind on this one.

I don’t like what I’ve heard about the injury suffered by the little boy. Do they constitute child abuse under the law? Peterson says he never intended to inflict such injury, that he was just administering punishment similar to what he got as a boy growing up in East Texas.

About the only conclusion I can draw so far about the Peterson case is that it doesn’t come close to the kind of violence inflicted by other professional athletes against their spouses and/or girlfriend, i.e., the Ray Rice matter.

This one is causing me some heartburn.

I don’t condone Peterson’s attempt to discipline his young children. But I am not yet willing to accept that he deserves the kind of scorn that is being heaped on Ray Rice.